'That Autobot has never picked cotton in his life!' by Kara
Wednesday, July 4, 2007 at 7:25 AM

So yeah, I went last night.

Having seen any 'boy' cartoons growing up whenever I was at my cousin's house (the g'rents just didn't think that was quite the right sort of thing for little girls), my exposure to Transformers, He-Man, etc. are limited, but still existent. That is, I didn't grow up incredibly attached to the series, but I like it enough that I know names and personalities and can say as long as they have particular robots, I'm happy (Bumblebee and Starscream, if you're curious).

And also I could be happy when hearing Optimus Prime's voice.

Now, I don't know about people who still go back and watch it regularly (I really should), but I remember 'going back' when I was in college, and I recall that show being ... well ... pretty damn goofass once in a while. Okay, more than once in a while. For chrissake, the movie had Eric Idle and a song by Weird Al. Of course, it also had Orson Welles as Unicron, which may have lent it some 'gravitas,' if Transformers can ever be said to have gravitas.

My point is, I got a feeling that a lot of hardcore fans might resent the goofass scenes, either between the Autobots or the humans. I really didn't have a problem with them. The humans interested me (well, not all of them ... mostly Sam and his family, but if that girl is fscking 17, I'm over the hill). The serious scenes were serious enough, the funny scenes were truly funny, robots blew shit up, and Hugo Weaving helped.

As for the designs ... okay, the articulated faces annoyed me, but not always for the same reasons they may likely have annoyed other people. I couldn't see them. The stuff was so intricate that it all muddled together and I couldn't see what was going on, thus sort of defeating the purpose. And what I could see looked like the designers were trying too hard. Prime flipped his mask on once or twice, and I kinda wish he'd left it there.

Unfortunately, as I said, I am not attached enough to the show to judge it at all past those things relative to the original. As a movie on its own ... well, I've seen better movies. It wasn't bad. It's just I've seen better. But it was fun, which was the whole damn point of it.

A safe and happy 4th to the Amurricans. And if you're not in the States, same. If you have been, don't blow yer hand off.